Insights — Executive Recruitment — 3 min read
What Should a Commercial Director Own?
The commercial remit is the easiest executive role to define badly. Here is what it should own, what belongs elsewhere, and where the boundaries sit.
In short
A Commercial Director should own pricing and margin, the commercial terms on which business is written, partner and channel arrangements, and bid and tender strategy. They should influence but not own the product roadmap, delivery, and statutory finance. Whether the sales function reports into them is a structural choice the business must make explicitly.
Commercial Director is the least standardised title in the senior commercial market. In one business it means the person who runs sales. In another it means the person who signs contracts. In a third it means everything the Managing Director no longer has time to do.
That variation is survivable as long as the business is specific about which version it is recruiting. It becomes expensive when the job description is a list of responsibilities with no statement of authority behind any of them.
The four constants of the commercial remit
| Area | What ownership means in practice |
|---|---|
| Price and margin | The price position by segment, product and channel; the discount framework; accountability for the gross margin that results. |
| Commercial terms | Payment terms, liability, service commitments, renewal and exit — reviewed commercially before anything is signed. |
| Partners and channels | Who the business sells through, on what terms, with what expectations and what review cycle. |
| Bids and major deals | Which opportunities are pursued, at what price, with what risk accepted and what walk-away position. |
If any one of those sits elsewhere by default, the business has appointed a commercial adviser rather than a Commercial Director. That may be the right choice — but it should be a choice.
Price is a position, not a reaction
In businesses without commercial leadership, price is whatever the last negotiation produced. Each discount is justifiable in isolation: a competitive situation, an important customer, a quarter to close. The aggregate is a price list nobody believes and a margin nobody planned.
Owning price means stating what the business will charge, for what, to whom, and on what basis exceptions are granted. It does not mean approving every deal. A good commercial framework should let most decisions happen in the field without escalation, and make the exceptions visible.
Margin is owned before the sale, not reported after it
Finance reports margin. The Commercial Director determines it — through pricing, mix, channel economics, contract terms and what the business chooses to pursue. The distinction matters because a business that treats margin as a finance output will keep discovering its profitability rather than deciding it.
Revenue is what you win. Margin is what you chose to win it on.
Contracts: commercial review is not legal review
Legal review asks whether the business is exposed. Commercial review asks whether the deal is worth having: whether the payment terms are affordable, whether the service commitments are deliverable at the price quoted, whether the renewal mechanism protects future value, whether the liability accepted is proportionate to the margin earned.
Businesses that run only legal review sign contracts that are safe and unprofitable. Those that run only commercial review sign contracts that are profitable and exposed. The Commercial Director owns the first question and coordinates the second.
Partnerships are commercial arrangements, not relationships
Distributor, reseller and partner arrangements have a way of becoming personal relationships held by whoever created them. When that person leaves, the arrangement leaves with them. Commercial ownership means documented terms, stated performance expectations, a margin structure that works for both parties, and a review cycle that happens whether or not the relationship is comfortable.
What the role should not own
- Statutory finance, reporting, audit and cash management — that is a Finance Director remit, and commercial accountability does not extend to the ledger.
- Product decisions — the Commercial Director should shape them through price and market evidence, not make them.
- Delivery and operations — the role should hold delivery to what was sold, not run it.
- Marketing execution — commercial input on positioning and price is legitimate; owning the marketing function is a separate decision.
Where sales fits
Two structures work. In the first, sales reports into the Commercial Director, who then owns both winning revenue and the terms it is won on. In the second, a Sales Director owns the function and the Commercial Director owns the commercial framework it operates within, with both reporting to the Managing Director.
The first is simpler and suits businesses where commercial complexity and sales leadership can reasonably sit with one person. The second suits businesses with a strong sales function already in place and a genuine commercial governance gap. What does not work is leaving it unstated and letting the two roles negotiate the boundary themselves.
Discuss a Commercial Director requirement
Permanent, interim or fractional. The conversation starts with what the role must own — price, margin, terms and partners — rather than with a job title.
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Written by
International Sales & Market Development Director, Evans Sales Consultancy
Published 17 September 2026 — 3 min read